and a good saturday afternoon to you from the studios of our nbc station, wtvj in miami. we are here in battleground florida, where the presidential polls show mitt romney and barack obama running in a statistical dead heat. so for the campaigns, it's now all about the ground game. they're trying to get their supporters to the polls and get them there early. today is the first day of in-person early voting here in the sunshine state. no shortage of organizations working to get people to vote as soon as they can here. earlier today, i had a chance to talk with a few of the folks who decided to cast their ballots on this first day of voting. >> i work, and i don't want to be in all of the waiting and the lines and everything. >> i was with my mom, and she decided to go early, and i wanted to vote so, i went with

her. >> i think i'm working election day. so i figured i'd come out a little early, get it done now. >> we'll have much more on the impact of early voting coming up here in just a few moments. first, though, the very latest on hurricane sandy. we'll get to the hurricane in just a moment, though. let's go to the political headlines. we'll come back to hurricane sandy in just a few moments. both campaigns in a battleground blitz of sorts ahead of the last full week of campaigning. three major events this hour. governor romney expected to speak at his second event of the day here in florida. this time in kissimmee, florida. he is also rescheduling three stops that he had in virginia. those stops are planned for tomorrow. he is rescheduling them ahead of hurricane sandy. he will be campaigning in ohio instead. meanwhile, a rapid response from the governor's campaign after the president describing his opponent's economic plan like this during a stop in new

hampshire this afternoon -- >> folks at the very top get to play by a different set of rules than you do. they get to pay lower tax rates, outsource jobs. they want to let wall street run wild, make reckless bets with other folks' money. >> the romney campaign responded saying, quote, today's desperate attacks are laughable coming from a president whose only plan for a second term is to recycle the failed policies of the last four years. meanwhile, we are also expecting to hear from the two men on the bottom of the ticket this hour. vice president joe biden will address supporters in lynchburg, virginia, while congressman paul ryan will make the second stop on his bus tour through, you guessed it, battleground ohio. governor romney as we mentioned a few moments ago here in the sunshine state, swing state no doubt as i just said. he is going to be holding a second event with marco rubio, senator rubio in kissimmee this

hour. peter alexander traveling with governor romney joins us by phone now. pete, tell us about the crowds, first of all for governor romney today. >> reporter: well, craig we have taken a little jump and gone ahead of the governor so we can get to land o'lakes now. we're in what is another critical battleground. this is the tampa area, very much a battleground within this swing state here. as people begin to file in, you can see what has become an energized system of support for governor romney in this state. he is making the tour here because today is the first day of in-person polling, the first day that the polls are officially open. absentee votes already 1.1 million have been cast. the democrats in this state actually do better on election day. the early voting traditionally goes towards the republicans in this state. governor romney has been focused on one particular theme throughout the course of the last several days. that's the difference between the two campaigns, referring to

big change, real recovery versus the small campaign that he says the president is running. earlier today, he used the word big in one form or another 11 separate times. we also can tell you that the events scheduled to take place, the rallies in virginia tomorrow have now all been canceled or more officially have been rescheduled as a result of hurricane sandy that is taking aim there. the campaign didn't want to risk looking like it was putting politics above public safety. they instead are going to head to ohio, joining paul ryan for three stops as part of his bus tour. that's tomorrow. craig? >> peter alexander on the trail with mitt romney here in florida. peter, thanks to you, sir, as always. hurricane sandy. let's get back to it here. currently whipping the coast of north carolina with strong winds as folks all along the eastern seaboard are bracing for impact. let's good ahead and check in with our reporter on the ground, don trong, where officials are

warning that this storm could be unlike any other that delaware has experienced in some time. >> well, because of the products commitment to the water, you have the chesapeake bay and the atlantic ocean which is behind me. it's being kicked up pretty well. s tonight are expected to get kicked up tomorrow. this is a crowded beach day in rehoboth because of the sea witch festival. it's a very large crowd. you're starting to see signs of businesses starting to board up because they're anticipating the conditions to go down pretty quickly starting tomorrow. the wind here is pretty steady for now, but it is very chilly because of this late season storm. they're expecting wide power outages up and down the east coast here. regionally, they pulled in about 2,000 extra utility workers to be on standby because they're anticipating as the storm goes through further inland, it's going to dump a lot of rain, a lot of wind. and that's going to be a lot of trees going down. an that's going to put a lot of

people without power for quite a few days. as you can imagine, a lot of people here bracing for storm. but for now they're just enjoying what they have left here in rehoboth. back to you. tanh truong, widespread power outages in the northeast. six million were without power after tropical storm irene last year. so tanh, thank you. i appreciate that report, sir. let's get back to politics now, as we've been reporting in person early voting started today here in the sunshine state. that is later than it started for the 2008 election by a week. the legislature haas year cutting the number of early voting days from 14 to eight. how could early voting in florida and elsewhere as well, how could it change the 2012 presidential campaign? i'm joined now by bill schneider, resident fellow at third way. bill, good afternoon to you, sir. >> good afternoon, craig. >> you know, first, let's talk about early voting in general, because it really has become

quite the transformative phenomenon in this country when you look at how many people were doing it in 2000 versus here in 2012. how is early voting, how has it changed campaigning for white house in this country? >> well, it certainly has made campaigning far more extensive earlier because people are already voting. so the campaigns have to make their closing arguments weeks before election day. generally, the rule is anything that makes it easier to vote is likely to help democrats because the democrats -- the democratic base includes a lot of groups that have lower turnout rates historically -- young people, foreign born citizens, minorities, working people, including working women with families. if you make it easier to vote, you're more likely to get those voters to turn out. >> i want to go ahead and bring in mark caputo, a political writer for the miami herald. good afternoon to you. thanks for joining us. for folks who are not familiar with the geography of this

state, talk to me a little bit about first of all how florida is essentially four separate states. explain that to us. >> yeah, the southeast is like the northeast. the southwest is like the midwest. the far north of florida is like the deep south. and then the middle area, what they frequently call the i-4 corridor from tampa through orange county, orlando to d-b k daytona beach, that's like everywhere in the united states. right now we've had 1.2 million people cast absentee ballots. the gop leads by about five points. but early voting started today in florida. it's hot and heavy, and you're going to see a huge democratic turn south. i would imagine by tomorrow if not tuesday, the democrats will actually lead in total ballots cast. >> one of the things also we should note about florida here, i understand that democrats have a registered voter lead as well in this state. that's at roughly a half million. that accurate?

>> actually, the numbers just came out a minute ago. 535,000 voters is what the democrats lead the republicans by. now, in 2008 it was a 657,000 voter edge. what is interesting is that florida's voter rules have become basically blacker and browner, and the democratic party has responded as well, whereas the republican party is becoming whiter where. hispanics have grown about 22% in the state, they've grown 26% on the democratic voter roles, but only grown 9% on the gop voter roles. so the changing demographics of the state are going to haunt the galena park, if not in this election and future ones, assuming those voters turn out and cast ballots. >> marc caputo, bill schneider, gentlemen, thanks to both of you. i appreciate your time. >> thank you. >> thanks. coming up, the reverend al sharpton will join us live. he is also here in miami getting out the vote early.

we'll spend some time in ohio as well. we'll talk about a nightmare scenario that could play itself out in the buckeye state come election day. and it could keep us -- it could all keep us up late counting ballots past november 6th, november 7th, maybe november 8th. we'll talk about what could happen in ohio next. ♪ [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus presents the cold truth. i have a cold... i took dayquil, but i still have a runny nose. [ male announcer ] truth is, dayquil doesn't work on runny noses. what? [ male announcer ] it doesn't have an antihistamine. really? [ male announcer ] really. alka-seltzer plus cold and cough fights your worst cold symptoms, plus has a fast acting antihistamine to relieve your runny nose. [ sighs ] thank you! [ male announcer ] you're welcome. that's the cold truth! [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus. ♪ oh what a relief it is! ♪ [ male announcer ] try new alka-seltzer plus severe allergy to treat allergy symptoms, plus sinus congestion, and pain.

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early voting has undoubtedly changed the dynamic of this election in many key states, but this one state, early voting could actually be leading to late results. the cincinnati enquirer calls it ohio's nightmare voting

scenario. in ohio, anyone who asks for an absentee ballot, anyone that then decides to vote at the polls on election day, they change their mind, they may not have their ballot counted until november 17th at the earliest. investigative reporter barry orsman wrote that story for the enquirer. barry, first of all, thanks for being with me. second of all, how many votes are affected, and why will there be such a delay in counting those ballots? >> well, craig, i guess we could say that ohio's nightmare scenario could become the nation's if on election night the state's 18 electoral votes are needed to put president obama or mitt romney over the top. that's because as you mentioned at the outset we have a new program in ohio this year where every registered voter received an absentee ballot application. if you asked for one and ultimately decide not using it and decide i'd just as soon vote at the polls after all, when you show up you have to vote

provisionally. those get put aside for ten days. as of yesterday, there were 800,000 people yesterday who had asked for an absentee ballot who had not yet sent it back in. a lot of the people are probably waiting until the closing days of race to do it. if each a quarter do not return it and show up at the polls, that's 200,000 people right there. there is a second category that do vote absentee but only do it the day before an election. if an absentee ballot is not in the hand of the election before the election, it gets put in the hands of the board. for ten days. typically folks who have moved or changed their name through marriage and haven't bothered to update the registration. those also get set aside for ten days. so you add these all together, it's quite possible on election night to have 400 or 500,000 votes that we will not how they break until at least november 17th. >> you know what? president obama seems to be holding a slight edge in ohio.

"time" magazine poll shows the president, 49% governor romney, 44%. the poll surveyed those who will vote on election day. also polled some early voters as well. could the absentee voting situation in the buckeye state, could it change the numbers as we get closer to election day? >> oh, absolutely. at this point we've had close to a million actually cast so far. as i mentioned we have another 800,000 out. and in ohio you can still through next saturday, the saturday before the election ask for an absentee ballot application. so we've got hundreds of thousands of these coming in. and to go back to the points i made at the outset, you add all the categories of uncounted votes together and it could easily flip a 51/49, 52/48 elect the other way. >> barry, you've been covering ohio for some time. now you're more familiar with the situation than just about anyone in the country. give me odds here. give me likelihood. how do you think this thing plays out there? >> well, the polls are so close.

we in fact have another one coming out in our own paper tomorrow that shows about as close as you can imagine. each of the polls in the last week has shown a gap of maybe a couple of percentage points. so depending on which day of the week you're talking about and who you're speaking to, you can get an obama or a romney prediction here. i think it really is too close to call in ohio at this stage. >> how prepared are the campaign there's in ohio on the ground? because if this thing is not outside what i like to call the margin of litigation, i would imagine we're going to see a significant number of attorneys descend on the buckeye state. are we already starting to see that there? >> we are. in fact, there are some jokes going around that this is secretly a conspiracy to fill ohio hotels with lawyers in the post election period. in the two to three weeks after, when these votes will be tabulated, you can almost guarantee that they're there are going to be challenges to whether certain provisionals should be counted based as much

on the geography of where they come from as much as anything else. if they come from minority neighborhoods versus upscale, you can make informed judgments about which way they're going to break. in past elections that has been the source of quite a bit of fighting in the courtroom. i'm sure we're going to see that again this year. >> all eyes on ohio, barry. barry horstman, don't you guys screw this thing up on election night. we want to make sure you guys get everything in a timely fashion. we like to get to bed at a reasonable hour. >> you'll get to bed at a reasonable hour. you just might have to wait until thanksgiving to see who wins. >> thank you, thanks for being here. >> thank you. as early voting in the sunshine state gets under way today, a group of black clergy is leading a voter turnout drive through four different south florida locations. they are calling it operation lemonade as making lemonade out of lemons after florida scaled back the number of early in-person voting dates from 14 to eight.

the reverend al sharpton, reverend al, president of the action now network, one of the folks helping lead operation lemonade. he joins me live. now he is about 30 minutes away from miami. also the host of politics nation with al sharpton right here on msnbc, every week night 6:00. rempbds al, good afternoon to you, sir. >> how you doing, craig? >> tell us about operation lemonade. what is it? >> well, bishop victor curry who pastors one of the largest churches in the state of florida, new birth baptist came up with the concept. he also leads a national action network on miami-dade, saying that they have given us a lemon. they told us that they're cutting back the days in early voting. they've stopped the sunday before election day voting, which was always where they would have the souls to the polls, especially churches in black communities would push people out. he said they have given us a

lemon. we're going to take the lemon and not get bitter. he said we're going to get better. and he calls it operation lemonade. he has organized about 150 ministers. and i came down to be with him today. and from miami-dade we went all over different sites, all the way up to broward county and it is amazing the turnout. i think that if we see today, if we see today what we saw over the next seven days they will in less time do more votes in early voting than they did before. and i think that with bishop curry and the ministers here have done is tap into the fact that a lot of people feel that they have been offended, that the vote was trying to be suppressed. what they may have done is incur the wrath of voters feeling that they have been mistreated. >> you know, i'm glad you brought that up. i spent some time talking to a number of voters this morning

who said the exact same thing. i said, man, you know you can do this absentee or wait until tuesday. and a guy said to me, oh, no. folks thought that this, the change in the rules was going to keep us from the polls. and he said he brought along a couple of his friends. it sounds as if this may have as you mentioned, the opposite effect. we've been talking about early voting there are also issues of voter intimidation and voter id laws that i want to get your take on. reuters, efforts to mislead, pressure or intimidate voters are an increasingly prominent part of the political landscape. one of the key words there, reverend al, increasingly. what is behind this? what is driving this? >> well, i mean, i think we've seen letters, even some going to republicans. we've seen billboards. i think there is always been the mood of some to try and stop people from voting, disenfranchise people, parlor tricks as we call it.

but i think what we are seeing now is the most aggressive i've seen. voter id laws where all of the sudden with no fraud, we need different id now to vote in some states than we've ever needed. and all kinds of efforts for voter clergy, particularly here in florida. i think all of this has energized people to say wait a minute, this is not going to happen. you're not going to take my vote. quoting bishop curry again, last time it was history on many when the minority community was voting for the first black president. this time it's personal. they're voting because they do not want to see their vote taken. and i heard that all over. i toured five or six sites already. i'm doing two or four churches tomorrow and a march. people are saying despite whoever people vote for we have to come out and vote. we're not going to be intimidated. we're not going to be threatened.

we're not going to be tricked. >> last question here. the legislature here in florida shortened early voting to eight days from 14 this time around. what type of effect do you think that's going to have on early voting here in florida? >> i think from what i saw today, they have cut back the time, but they can't cut back the line. the lines are longer and maybe stronger. >> reverend al. let me tell you, you know how to end an interview, sir. i appreciate your time. thank you. >> thank you. all right. >> reverend al sharpton president of the national action network. and you can also catch him "politics nation" week nights 6:00 p.m. right here on msnbc. up next, a major change for america's first voters. why this year's midnight vote in dixville will look a whole lot different. you're watching msnbc. ♪ all day, and all of the night, all day and all of the night ♪

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time for one more helping of trail mix. and a landmark new hampshire voting site won't be open on election day. the balsams grand resort hotel in dixville notch closed for the first time in 50 years. dixville notch always the first town to vote in every presidential election, and many first voters would cast their ballots from the hotel at midnight. this year they'll be doing it at a nearby ski ridge. paul ryan and mitt romney getting a little meatloaf. the rock star sang for the republican ticket in defiance, ohio last night. enjoying that rally, actress patricia heaton, who through a little humorous shade at ryan for both his hunk status and his love of hunting. >> i have to tell you, backstage i didn't recognize him with his shirt on. [ laughter ]

and i did wear orange not only because i'm a browns fan, but i was afraid that paul would have his shotgun. i just wanted to make sure he knew i was here and where i was standing. didn't want to get any buckshot. >> was that a cheney dig there? last time any vice president got busted for being bad with a shotgun was dick cheney. open season, i guess. up next, we'll bring you the latest on hurricane sandy and how it may be a game changer in this election. it could be the october surprise we've been talking about. you're watching msnbc, the place for politics. to take it all head-on... ♪ channel the universe... ♪ shorten the distances... ♪ push beyond the possible... ♪ roar past convention...

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we put a week of her family's smelly stuff all in at once to prove that febreze car vent clips could eliminate the odor. then we brought her family to see if it worked. tell me what you smell. something fresh. a beach. take your blindfolds off. oh! look at all this garbage! febreze car. eliminates odors for continuous freshness, so you can breathe happy. have you tried this yet? save on febreze car and other innovative products with the october 28th p&g brandsaver. good saturday to you. i'm craig melvin here in miami, florida, where in-person early voting started early this morning. before we get the latest on the race for president, though, let's get an update on hurricane sandy. for that we turn to nbc

meteorologist dylan dreyer standing by. >> we still have a category 1 hurricane on our hands. it is still moving northeast at about 12 miles per hour. but it is going to still take that northwest turn as we go into monday. here you see the heavy rain moving still on shore. the heaviest of it just off the coastline. but we have had some pockets of heavy rain across northeastern north carolina. we do have sustained winds up to 20 miles per hour with gusts as high as 35 to 40 miles per hour with this storm. this area of high pressure to our northeast. it is blocking the storm from going east. that's why it's going to take that turn to the northwest. and anywhere from new jersey down through the delmarva peninsula, this should make landfall, kind of as a post tropical storm. it is going to change in nature a little bit as it makes its way closer to the midatlantic. either way, it is a huge storm. it is going to bring its worst impacts to the area from new york city all the way down into washington, d.c. and delaware and maryland monday evening into tuesday morning. new york has already taken some

precautions. the mta has said that subways, bridges, and commuter rails could be shut down as early as 7:00 sunday evening. that decision will not be made until hours before. just keep that in mind that that is a possibility. we are looking at inland flooding along with the coastal flooding. the coastal flooding brought on by the storm surge at four to five feet. rainfall up to around 4 to 8 inches. isolated higher amounts around 10 to 12 inches will cause some flooding. however, the dry conditions we've had recently and the lower river levels should ease inland flooding a little bit. but that's still a lot of water to contend with. we're also looking at sustained winds at 40 to 60 miles per hour. gusts could be up to 80 miles per hour. our potential impacts will be for the inland flooding because of the sheer amount of rainfall we're going to see. coastal flooding because of the storm surge. and on the of that, we also have leaves on the trees. that's a big point here. because with winds gusting at times near 70 to 80 miles per hour, downed trees will possibly

fall into power lines. we could be looking at an extended period of power outages through the weekend and perhaps even into next week. craig? >> extended power outages. wow. >> not good. >> thank you so much. do appreciate that we'll check in with you a little later. let's take a moment to check some of the other news stories today. for that we turn to richard lui. >> another note on the hurricane here for you craig. president obama held a conference call today to discuss preparations. the president getting the update during his flight to new hampshire for a campaign event there. the white house made it clear to emergency officials that the federal government will provide all necessary resources to help the east coast deal with the storm. 11 people have been arrested today for planning a series of attacks on the u.s. and australian embassies in indonesia. police say the suspects belong to a group they called a sunni movement for indonesian society. it was unclear how far the plans had advanced. we'll have more news later for

you craig. now back to you in miami. >> thank you, sir. do appreciate that. here in miami no shortage of enthusiasm among early voters in this presidential contest. take a look at some video shot by our team just a few hours ago, as you can see. long lines. i think we had that video. long lines at polling sites more than a week before the election. there it is right there. i talked to some folks this morning about their role in the race and how they thought it was going. >> a job like that, you know, it can pose a challenge. and, you know, i stand behind the president. and, you know, i'm happy to be in line to vote. >> i'm just thinking it's going to be a lot tighter race. and there has been a lot of animosity from both sides. so i just think it's going to be extremely, extremely tight. >> i don't like the romnesia kind of wording that seems to be making a joke out of it. this is a very serious matter.

>> the turnout for early voting in several states not only reshaping the way our country votes, but the strategy of the candidates themselves. here now with more behind the story is msnbc contributor and nation correspondent ari melber. good to see you, friend. >> nice to see you down there. what i want to talk to you today is something you've been covering all hour. and i think people know about it. early voting is not only more popular around the country, it's really shifting how we pick our president. in the 2000 election, 9 out of 10 people cast their ballot on election day. this day one out of three will cast their vote early. we moved from a one-day election to one lasting several weeks. first, the trend is destroying one iron-clad rule of campaigns, that the most important thing is how a candidate closes. so that's bad news for mitt romney, who as he know did have a solid month but is still trailing in voting in many states. that's because president obama has cemented a lead in those

early ballots before any romney rebound. at the same time, early voting is making this year's ground game more important. obama has the edge there too. his campaign opened more than twice as many field offices as mitt romney. and that has given him a two-to-one lead for example among early voters in ohio. if you look at iowa, it's 35 points. let me be clear. this is not hypothetical polling. those polls that i just mentioned are of people who already voted. and obama isn't just beating romney. this week i spoke to campaign aide, adam fletcher who says the obama campaign is also beating its early vote margins from 2008. what is the gop response? it's twofold. first, they say they have an advantage with absentee and election-day voters. that's true. but there is another response that i think is more troubling. in ohio, they tried to stop the early voting on the weekend before november 6th. that's against the rules. and when that failed, ohio republicans went all the way to the supreme court, which rejected their attempt.

so like voter id laws, early vote cog become another ugly battle over the right to vote itself. and that's one rule of politics that hasn't changed here. the party trying to suppress votes is usually the one losing. craig? >> ari melber, always appreciate your insight here. let me ask you one thing before i let you get out of here or we bring some other folks in. >> sure. >> if early voting is as vital as it seems to be this year, why isn't the romney camp placing a greater emphasis on driving his supporters to the polls as well? >> that's a great question, because people are probably aware of this gap. the bottom line is you have such different electorates when you look at the base of these two campaigns, what romney knows and what his people know is that when you look at the reliable republican voters, particularly those who turned out strongly in the last midterms, you have people who basically prefer to vote on election day, including a lot of elderly voters. so they don't want to try to change when those people vote. they just want to stick them

where they know they will. where as the obama campaign has done much better among what they call sporadic voters. >> sporadic voters. all right. ari melber, don't go anywhere. sit right. we'll bring a few more folks into our conversation. this is what we like to call the brain trust there is perry bacon, fellow msnbc contributor, and suesan ferrechio. we've seen polling, we've seen numbers from a variety of sources. governor romney behind in early voting in key states like iowa, like ohio, like florida. his camp isn't that interested in grabbing early votes. so what does he need to do to win as opposed to the president who seems to have fortified his standing? >> the key thing to think about is ari's use the term sporadic. what both campaigns are trying to do is find people who didn't

vote in 2010, for instance, and they want particularly obama's campaign wants to find people. they want to use the early vote time to find people who didn't vote in 2010, come to their house over and over again, call them over and over again, and make sure they vote. that's more important for obama because a lot of voters who voted stayed home in 2010. a so what the obama campaign wants to do is find the low propensity voters and target them aggressively. that's why they put more money into early vote, versus romney, as ari said, they view their electorate as pretty much fixed, and people who are elderly, who will show up to vote whenever the election. >> susan, you've said that there hasn't been an october surprise at this particular point. any chance that this storm that we are seeing that is about to barrel up the east coast and slam into a number of states, any chance this could be that surprise? >> well, if you look at the states where it will affect on the east coast, early voting in the east coast, you're looking at a lot of people might get out

there and vote for obama. but this is just so unprecedented to have a storm like this close to the election. it's hard to say if it will affect. if it does affect anyone, i think as ari was saying, a lot of the early voters are going to go for obama, those sporadic voters. if anything you think it might benefit rom anymore. but already the storm seems to be working against romney. he has had to cancel an important swing state tour. he is now headed off to ohio. that's already affected the republicans in that sense. but we really just have to wait and see if there is going to be extensive power outages, if people aren't going to feel like dealing with voting on top of all the other headaches of a storm. >> we should note here in virginia, there is no in-person early voting, only the absentee early voting. that's the most significant of the battleground states where it look like this storm is going the hit. stick around, guys. i want to talk about some other things. when we come back, though, on the other side of this break, we are going to take folks to kissimmee, florida, kissimmee, florida, mitt romney about to

take the microphone at a campaign rally. well brought you the president earlier in our broadcast. we'll give you governor romney here in just a bit. we should also note, there he is right, there vice president joe biden in lynchburg, virginia. he has just started speaking as well. rallies all over the battlegrounds. we'll take you there. we'll also talk about the mitt-mentum. what does the pontiff have to do to overcome that? the brain trust on that and a lot more, right after this. ♪ ♪ fly by night away from here ♪ ♪ change my life again ♪ ♪ fly by night, goodbye my dear ♪ ♪ my ship isn't coming ♪ and i just can't pretend oww! ♪ [ male announcer ] careful, you're no longer invisible in a midsize sedan. the volkswagen passat. winner of a motor trend midsize sedan comparison. that's the power of german engineering.

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oh, hey alex. just picking up some, brochures, posters copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race. no need to get nasty. here's your "honk if you had an affair with taylor" yard sign. looks good. [ male announcer ] fedex office. now save 50% on banners. vice president joe biden is addressing supporters at a rally in lynchburg, virginia. let's listen in. >> days away from electing someone to the presidency of the united states that will put us back on the right track. he started talking about binders. binders. binders. binders of qualified women he

learned were out there. we catholics call that an epiphany. look, he never did answer whether or not women were entitled to equal pay for equal work. but i will. barack obama and i are committed to equal pay. we're absolutely committed to making sure that my daughter, his granddaughters -- his daughters and my granddaughters -- i'm making him older than he is -- and have the exact same rights as my sons and my grandson. the exact same rights. [ cheering ] and folks, as joe said, just picture the supreme court after four years. after four years of president romney. ladies and gentlemen, they have made it clear that they also have a very different view on foreign policy. when we entered the war in iraq,

they said we should have kept 30,000 troops there. they refuse to commit to an end date on the war in afghanistan, and they openly opposed the signing of an arms control treaty with russia that every single former republican secretary of state, secretary of defense, and national security adviser urged be ratified. >> there is vice president joe biden in lynchburg, virginia. let's go ahead and take you to governor mitt romney. he is in kissimmee, florida, here. just taken the stage there. behind him marco rubio. also connie mack. connie mack represents the fourth district here in florida. >> in english and spanish, and thank you for being here. what a welcome! this is fabulous, thank you. [ cheering ] now let me underline something that connie mack just said. he reminded you that early voting began today.

that means that today you can go vote. and it helps for you to vote now because the earlier you vote, the more help you can give us getting other people to the polls? because we're going to have to turn out our people. we need to get people who care about america to go to the polls and vote this election counts. we're going to make this election count for america. now jeff atwater is here. where is jeff atwater? he has been my chairman for the state and i appreciate his help. he is around somewhere. we'll give him acknowledgment, where we can find him or not. i want to tell you as we have gone across this country, there is growing interest in the campaign and growing commitment to our cause. people recognize that this is a big election, a lot of big things. and they see the president, he keeps making the election about smaller and smaller things. look, four years ago when he ran

for office he spoke about the big things going on. but today his campaign has been reduced to the smallest. he can't speak to the moment of consequence that this represents. he is talking about characters on "sesame street" and silly word games and attacks. he has so many attacks on me, it's like there are other ways to go after me. just go after me with the truth. you don't need to make up things. but he makes up things he knows aren't true, and frankly i think that's in part why his campaign isn't making much progress, because people recognize this is a critical time. they want big answers and big change. >> and there you have it, governor romney here in florida. he is in kissimmee, florida, there. i want to bring back in the brain trust. perry bacon, ari melber standing by as well, and susan ferrechio. let me start with you here. any surprises? what we heard from governor

romney borrowing the pitch for early voting. that sounded like the same stump speech we've been hearing over the last week or two. >> yeah, it struck me as similar. he is still hitting on big bird and romnesia and trying to argue that president obama is engaged in a small type of campaign. of course, the problem is for people watching, they just saw vice president biden on moments before live right now saying that you have to think about the supreme court. you have to think about women's rights. and i think there are a lot of big closing arguments here because of what we just talked about last segment, craig, that the democrats are focused partly on really turning out their base voters. we're hearing a lot of base messaging. and what i thought president obama said, the most important thing he said to me to my mind this week was that you don't want politicians, the vast majority of them male telling women what to do with their health care and their private medical decisions. it was overtly feminist. it was strong, it was pro-choice. it was a big issue to mitt romney's attack that we just heard on air. and it's important.

let me tell you something, that supreme court will look pretty different, and the choice disputes couldn't be farther apart when you look at these two candidate. >> all right. we're going to leave it right there for just a few moments. we're going to take a quick break, just three minutes. when we come back, we'll get back to the brain trust. we'll hash out all that we have seen and heard from the campaign trail today. a quick break. this is msnbc. managing my diabetes is part of my life, between taking insulin and testing my blood sugar... is this part of your life? freestyle lite test strips? why, are they any... beep! wow, that hardly needs any blood! yeah... and the unique zipwik tab targets the blood and pulls it in. so easy. freestyle lite needs just a third the blood of onetouch ultra. really? yep, which is great for people who use insulin and test a lot. max and i are gonna run out and get them right now. or you can call or click today and get strips and a meter free. test easy.

back now. just a few seconds left of the brain trust. perry bacon, ari melber, susan ferrechio. perry, let he start with you. what does the president need to say over the next ten days to seal the deal? >> i think he needs to paint a vision of the second terrell, what he would do in the second term, and also paint a vision of what mitt romney would do to take away on health care. what he would do on health care that would really hurt people and explain in a detailed why repealing health care is a really important issue. >> susan, let me good ahead and bring you in here. i just heard joe biden there. you just heard him as well making a direct appeal to women.

is that what we can expect to hear from he and the president over the next ten days? >> well, it certainly helps to try to launch this war on women and cut into the women's vote because more of them vote than men. but i think what romney was saying earlier is part of the reason why the obama campaign is stalling is that people he said want big answers, and they want to talk about big things. and that the obama campaign is stalling a little bit because they are focusing on little gaffes and things that they think the romney campaign is making. they're focusing on smaller things where people are really more worried about the economy and less worried about these issues surrounding contraception and stuff like that. i think obama really should be focusing on the larger issues of the economy and jobs. and that's what romney is doing. and the polls are reflecting that that is working. and that's why romney has pulled ahead in some of the national polls and is catching up in the battleground states. >> ari melber, i talked to a young voter in florida who voted for john mccain four years ago.

he is actually voting for president obama this time around because of his views on foreign policy. he told me the one thing that has annoyed him most about this whole process from both sides is the smallness of the campaign, that they have not discussed big issues. has that struck you as well? >> i kind of disagree with the premise. i mean -- here is the problem. barack obama does do big things. he passed the biggest domestic health care reform in 50 years. he caught osama bin laden. he bailed out the auto companies and refurbished them. i think there is a lot of big things going on. the rhetoric has been small at tiles, but i think there has been a lot of action, craig. >> ari melber, we'll leave it there, my friend. thanks to you. perry bacon, thanks to you. washington examiner congressional can't susan ferrechio, thanks to you as well. and thanks to all of you. but our biggest things to our friends here at wtvj, nbc 6 in miami, florida. they have played host to us today. we'll hit the road right now.

tomorrow live from jacksonville, florida, at 3:00 p.m. more on early voting and the hurricane. [ male announcer ] do you have the legal protection you need?

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